How Emotionally Engaging Content Can Help Your Business

A misconception many of us have is that blogging is an easy matter: you sit in front of a screen and type away until your document is filled with these long fabulations about the world, declarations of personal truths, and outbursts of joy or frustrations – all showing who we really are.

Aside from the personal aspects of (business) blogging, the possibilities it holds are endless and businessmen and women have been turning this tool – that is believed to be created for narcissists and those self absorbed – into a means to a profitable end.

The real conundrum is how far you can go in your attempt to inspire your readers – is your personal life a go-to place for inspiration, and can you incorporate social and emotional aspects of your existence within content that you write so that readers become more emotionally invested in your content?

Think about it, the majority of internet shoppers are emotional buyers and they will always decide on a buy after considering logical criteria, which they will end up ignoring due to an emotional aspect of the purchase (the product reminds them of someone, they root for the content writer, etc). What you write, if done correctly, can convince people to part with their money.

Making That Emotional Connection

Connecting with your readers on an emotional level is no task for the faint of heart: you need to be relentless, perceptive and most of all you need to keep going even if it doesn’t work out right away. Emotional writing is difficult and leaves you vulnerable, not because you are freely giving ammo to those who may want to accuse and criticize you, but because you have to be accountable for all you say and do.

Decide whether it is something you are willing to do before you try it out for size. The questions below should help you out:

Are your readers in touch with your businesses’ stories?

More importantly, are you and your employees in touch with your story?

What exactly defines you as a company and which stories are most relevant when trying to engage emotionally with your readers?

The true issue content marketing faces when it comes to connecting to its audience is that it makes readers feel absolutely nothing.

Content should go about not only making connections but also following them. What your audience connects with is what they identify with and what they make their own. And since the pure information that content marketing usually consists of has no possibility of making your audience trust or build a rapport with the company, it’s clear that you’re off to a bad start from the get-go.

How To Be Emotionally Engaging

So what can you do to improve your odds of emotionally engaging your audience?

1. Add A Personal Touch To Your Articles

Although being overly dramatic isn’t advisable, there are some aspects of your personal life and your business’ stories that you can evoke so that your readers can understand how your company came to be, how life is as an employee in your company and how much dedication and love goes into your product.

Take your readers through funny events that you and your colleagues always laugh about around the water cooler and tell them with your own personal twist, so that they start to feel like a part of your world.

This will enable you to create your own voice that faithful readers will never be able to forget. They will also learn to trust you more. As far as businesses are concerned, emotional writing will show them your human side, and help you brand your business more easily.

Consider rewriting titles and subtitles, so that they relate to personal stories rather than statistic information. For instance, replace a title such as “Treatment options for obesity” with “How I overcame being overweight”or “Rediscovering myself after conquering my condition” – titles that will appeal to your audience’s curiosity and will make them actually want to read your content.

They also give readers hope and it’s an example of how you were able to do what you are preaching. You are the living testimony. Such writing can be personalized for every need you may have, regardless of the niche your company finds itself in.

3. Spark Meaningful Conversations

Open questions and controversial posts make it almost impossible for your readers to not become actively engaged in conversations about certain topics. By appealing to their emotions, you can actually improve your products.

Imagine a twitter post about something you sell where certain followers express concerns or dislikes. This does not only give you the opportunity of improving your product free of charge (much like a beta test) but it also givesyou the chance to address unspoken concernsyour customers may have and openly discuss your policy and views. This way followers can see how much thought goes into creating the product you are selling.

4. Draw Attention

Your posts have to be able to catch the eye of possible readers and potential customers and this means that they have to be up to the task. Optimize your headline. Make them sensational and provocative, so that someone who stumbles across an article or post of yours cannot not read it.

Cleverly choose images since they are what attracts traffic the most. Make them relevant and consistent with your brand identity and use image SEO techniques to ensure maximum visibility.

Conclusion

Your ultimate goal is to create a relationship with your readers. They will have to trust you and your company if they choose to purchase your product. Make sure you go beyond just providing simple information: give your readers the possibility of taking what you write and using it in real life.

They are buying products from a person, and when they get to know the person they are buying their product from, they’ll be less hesitant to spend. The trick is to have the courage to put yourself out there, in spite of the possible criticism you may encounter. It will be worth it.

Editor’s note: This post is written by Dave Ken for Hongkiat.com. Dave is a Digital Marketing Strategist in IBOXSEO. He is passionate about the evolving nature of SEO and interested in the latest shifts and patterns, particularly related to content marketing. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.